Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2134058, member: 19463&quot;]EBay has begun giving a small percentage of purchases back as a kickback in the form of a credit that must be used rather quickly after it is received.&nbsp; Not seeing anything I wanted and thought I could expect to win before the expiration, I went on the look for something not too expensive but costing over the $7.43 credit I had.&nbsp; The result was this AE 25 pentokion of the Mamertines in Sicily c.220-200 BC.&nbsp; The Mamertines were Italian (Oscan) mercenaries who were employed by Agothocles of Syracuse.&nbsp; When he died and they were unemployed some of them captured the city of Messana in 288 BC and killed all the people except mariagable young women whom they used to produce a new generation of Mamertines.&nbsp; Since this coin dates to a couple generations after the main event, the plan seems to have worked.&nbsp; The Mamertines usually sided with Rome in the wars with Carthage and disappeared from the scene when Rome was in control fully.&nbsp; Since they started as Italians, perhaps we could say they returned to their roots about 200.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]406737[/ATTACH] </p><p>The coin shows a head of Ares and a warrior with his horse.&nbsp; On the reverse right is the legend MAMEPTIN(OI) and a large Pi left of the horse for the denomination Pentokion.&nbsp; These are not rare but not always a lot better than this.&nbsp; It closed at $14.11 postpaid so my credit dropped it to under $7.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>It would be appropriate here to show your Mamertine coins, issues of Agothocles or coins of the Punic Wars.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in